One closed eye, panther

[Sirkssim]

Your Chameleon - Panther, male, about 1.5 years old. Been in my care for just over a year.
Handling - Not very often
Feeding - Mostly Crickets usually fed with a grain mixture and veggies(sweet potatoes too). Wax worms (straight from the pet shop no gut loading) and sometimes small horn worms. Usually I give about 5(husband gives about 10 he says) -1/2 size to 3/4 sized crickets once a day plus the others when we have them (unless me or my husband dont tell the other they were fed and they get some again)
Supplements - I rotate. Rep-cal or zoo meds repti calcium without d3 about once or twice a week (i admit i forget sometimes) and once about every two weeks the rep-cal herptivite multivitamins and the repti cal with d3.
Watering - We have a gallon garden sprayer we use to spray down the whole cage and spraying the top to allow it to drip down. Usually 2-3 times a day, we spray until the cage looks soaked and that most leaves have water on them. He is a good drinker, not shy at all about it (unlike my veiled -.-)
Fecal Description - Usually they are moist poops and white uriates although this morning I did see a more orange looking urate (he pooped in the tub too while getting a shower and it was not as white as normal)
History - Never had any problems. He is a very healthy eater and not a shy drinker at all.


Cage Info:

Cage Type - Pvc mesh zip up hanging cage but it doesn't hang. sits on a table
Lighting - UBV reptiglo 5.0 light bar(not the small ones the long bar bulb) and a 75 watt zoo med basking bulb hanging from a reptile light stand about 6-8 inchs from highest branch in the cage. Light schedule during summer is 14 on 10 off, daylight savings time 12 on 12 off. automatic timers.


Temperature - Basking spot is 90+ (i never measure in the middle of the day only am when lights just came on due to work schedule). About 75-80 in the bottom. At night probably 65-75. We have digital gauges.
Humidity - humidity ranges between 50-80 depending on resent mistings. Georgia stays humid anyways. Mistings sometimes real plants are in there to help. Digital gauge
Plants - He used to have a dracenae but he got to big to climb on it and i havent had a chance to repot it so it will grow.
Placement - Cage is located in my front doorway (we don't use the front door. No traffic except for us feeding or spraying. no vents. Top of cage is probably 4-5 ft from the floor.
Location - Georgia.


My poor Oni has something wrong with one of his eyes. He keeps it closed for most of the day (at least for the past 2 I know of for sure). He also has a weird spot right above it (pics will be attached). When he was in the shower this morning he was actually opening both eyes quite a bit. His colors were popping really awesomely too (are we the only ones that call them pj's? because those are his sleeping colors) I do think he was a little dehydrated due to the uriates so i gave him a shower and he pooped in the tub! He drank a lot and I did give him some pedialyte using an eye dropper as well. Also I noticed in the shower (my husband said he was doing it yesterday) with the eye that's been open he will close it and roll it around and have a little bulge pop out next to his eye on top. I've never seen him do this until this morning. I am highly worried. I got off around 8 tonight and tried to give him a shower again to make sure he was drinking and to see if he would perk up but I think he knew it was time for bed. He crawled around for a few minutes and then just wanted to nap.

Hubby says he thinks his grip is weak as well but I'm not seeing any issue with his grip. He was grasping pretty tightly to me this morning and tonight. He is also mentioning how he grasps for things and missed but I believe this is due to him keep his one eye closed so hes trying to grasp by tough and not sight.
I did see about trying to flush the eye with saline (which i did buy some) but i am really scared to do this and hurt him. He seemed to open both fine in the shower this morning. He was in there for about 45 minutes.
I'm not aware of any exotic vets that aren't 2.5+ hours away from us.

 

[reptileguy112]

It looks burned up if you ask me but I dont know too much about the chameleon eye stuff because I have never had to research it (no sick chams). You said 90 plus on temp. 90 should be the max you should let it get, I would keep it at about 85F. Also you are doing your supplements all wrong, do calcium NO D3 every day, calcium WITH D3 once every other week, and reptivite once every two weeks. Can we get a pic of the whole setup?

 

[Sirkssim]

It looks burned up if you ask me but I dont know too much about the chameleon eye stuff because I have never had to research it (no sick chams). You said 90 plus on temp. 90 should be the max you should let it get, I would keep it at about 85F. Also you are doing your supplements all wrong, do calcium NO D3 every day, calcium WITH D3 once every other week, and reptivite once every two weeks. Can we get a pic of the whole setup?

I don't believe he looks burned up at all. Those are just his dark colors you are seeing. The picture I attached is how he has looked all day today beside when the above pictures were taken. As for the supplements I've heard a million different things about dusting everyday and he gets nostril buildup when I do it everyday.

The above picture is the best one i have of his enclosure since hes asleep now and I dont want to wake the poor thing. The foilage basically loop around and across the whole thing and a live plant normally sits in the middle.

 

[sharp229]

I don't think he looks burned, I think that is just the camera exposure. My guess would be vitamin A deficiency since that usually starts with one eye closing and no other symptoms.

Another possibility is that he has something in his eye. I am not sure what the bump above his eye is. Is it always there, or does it go away sometimes? If it is permanently there and especially if it gets bigger it could be an infection.

Vitamin A deficiency is treatable, but an infection or something he can't get out of his eye would require a vet. Post 6 in the below link has more info about Vitamin A.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/cham-keeps-closing-one-his-eyes-66576/

Moving the eye around and having it bulge out temporarily while doing this is common when they are trying to clean their eyes, so I woudn't worry about that behavior other than trying to solve what is causing it.

 

[Sirkssim]

He does seem to have both eyes open more in the shower right now. He didn't drink as much in there today but I did wake him up and put him in there. We had a power outage that threw the timers off this morning. He may not have been awake enough for it. But I am letting him stay in here a bit longer. He is crawling around licking his lips kind of so I guess he is starting to drink some now. My husband is going to the pet shop to see if we can find some good worms. The closest and best one near us doesn't carry a lot if variety besides wax and silks and rarely horn worms. I am trying I can say thebshowrr helps him.open both eyes. Just seems his depth perception is off due to not using both eyes much these past few days .

 

[Sirkssim]

I also noticed this after her pooped this morning. I've never seen this this. I've seen him have sperm plugs stuck but not whatever this is.

 

[JamesBryan]

You need a reflector on that UVB tube light too, most of the light is being wasted by not having one.

 

[MJKowal]

Sorry to hear about the issue with your panther.

I went through something like this two weeks ago and freaked out myself.... turns out there was just a little something stuck in his eye.

What I did was give him half hour showers 3 days in a row to make sure that his eye was clear which seemed to do the trick.

Based on the care information you provided, there are a few things you may want to look into changing.

1. you need to increase your dusting with calcium without D3, this should be with every feeding in order to prevent the onset of MBD. multivitamin and calcium with D3 are fine at once every two weeks.

2. Is it possible to get your cage up a little higher? Keeping in mind that they like to climb to the highest point, of which is currently only 4-5 feet you are still at eye level or higher than him. I have an 24x24x48 cage and the bottom of the cage sits on a 3 1/2 high table and the top of the cage where he loves to sit is well above my head and I am 5'6"

3. Basking spot should be 85-90 degrees not 90+ as you do risk him getting too close and burning himself which then creates a whole other world of problems

4. Lighting - your UV bulb should have a hood in order to reflect the light down into the cage for the chameleon to bask under.

I hope your little guy gets better!

 

[reptileguy112]

If he gets nostil build up its from water build up or dried mucus. You need to do calcium every day, d3 twice a month, and reptivite twice a month. If you are worried about build up wipe it off, its better than mbd

 

[MarieMc44]

I noticed that his bottom jaw is sitting a bit strange on his right side... Could that be a sign of mouth rot? Opinions?

 

[Craigwyatt]

It's possibly a Vit. A deficiency. If it is it usually very easy to treat. Please email me if you would like to know how to treat it as if it was a Vit.A deficiency.
[email protected]

 

[Sirkssim]

I've seen into his mouth a lot the past two days I'm not seeing anything the looks remotely like mouth rot. I actually looked into that but not seeing it in his mouth at all.if I can get a picture I will and post it. As for vit A deficiency I am emailing for the info. thank you.


Also my husband tried to feed him some silk worms this morning he ate one but not anything else. I don't recall him ever being a fan of them honestly which is why I don't buy them but we wanted to try something besides crickets. I'm going to see if he will eat some more tomorrow or get other worms. I know he loves wax worms. Even if they aren't as good at least I'll be happy if he eats. I offered crickets but not sure if he ate. I think the closed eye had his perception off so he's afraid to shoot his tounge .

 

[JoeVet]

Looks like MBD and vitamin A deficiency. His jaw is screwed up and his legs looks bad. The MBD could be due to lack of calcium/Vitamin D3 but vitamin A deficiency will present with similar findings. I recommend a vet visit.